


How Sleeping Ghosts Lie

by GothMoth



Series: Ectobers Ectoplasmic Splatters [25]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Danny's Piss Poor Just Terrible Shitty Awful Luck, Gen, Ghost tail, Habits Out Here Biting Us In The Ass, Let Danny Sleep, Reveal, The Enigma That Is One Danny Fenton, Tired! Danny, Your Classmates Dead Shenanigans, the quirks of being a halfa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:28:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26801419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GothMoth/pseuds/GothMoth
Summary: Danny had to get a little creative when it came to creature comforts, considering how hectic his half-life was. But that’s lead to him having some... less than human habits.Though really, when it’s common for your blankets and pillows to get set on fire, blown up, frozen, brought to life, or otherwise destroyed. It only made sense to just say ‘fuck it’ and use your own tail instead.
Series: Ectobers Ectoplasmic Splatters [25]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1511411
Comments: 17
Kudos: 398





	How Sleeping Ghosts Lie

**Author's Note:**

> Ectober 2020 Day 3: Mistake

To say Danny was tired would be an understatement. An uhn-dr-steit-muhnt.

So he’d seriously like to sleep right now. But no. Instead he has class. With Mr. Lancer. The hardest of hard asses on him about the whole ‘pay attention’ thing. Which fine, okay, guys heart was in a superb place; but seriously, he needs sleep waaaaaaay more than Gregorian poetry and the Dadaism art movement he keeps going on tangents about for some reason. 

Maybe he found a new interest to fixate on? Oh whatever. 

Anyway, Danny needs sleep and he’d like to get it right now thank you very much. And he was exhausted enough to sleep right through Mr. Lancer snapping at him to wake up, kinda a nice bonus right now; bad sign for his health though. Regardless, sleepy time. 

Over half the class sigh at the unmistakable sound of one Danny Fenton’s head hitting his desk. Including Mr. Lancer, who puts down the whiteboard marker and glances over his shoulder purely to make sure he was about to snap at the right student; Daniel had a pranking streak a mile long after all and had gotten other students to pretend to be asleep purely to embarrass whatever teacher blamed him without checking only to turn around and see a smug smirk across the boy’s face. 

Lancer isn’t surprised in the slightest to see Daniel’s face smushed against the desk, arms positioned over his head awkwardly; boy’s going to get a kink like that, “Daniel, please try to pay attention and wake up”, tossing one of the markers near the floor by him; even the slightest sound or movement out of the unusual always woke him up with a snap. It was almost concerning actually. 

Furrowing his brow when all that happens is one of Daniel’s arms flopping off his head and dangling off the edge of the desk. A couple of the teens also furrowing their brows or quirking them, some even snickering. Kwan actually kicks his feet, causing them to sick out sideways towards the window oddly; but still not waking the other teen. Star goes from giggling to actually looking genuinely _concerned_ , sticking up her hand, “uh Mr. Lancer? Maybe we should let him sleep for once”. 

Jesse leans back, snorting, “yeah, he’d say that he’s ‘ _dead to the world_ ’”. Mr. Lancer just sighs in the slacker's direction, Jesse was a more genuine problem child; she just didn’t care at all, unlike Daniel. Though he guesses if Daniel is really _that_ tired he can let this slip for once. This is still going on the test though. 

Five minutes go by with the class going on effectively like normal; every one more than a little pleased by the fact that Danny doesn’t snore. Sure the desk was definitely covered in drool, but that was only annoying for the janitor.... or who ever poor freshman who doesn’t know any better and sits there. Everyone made a point to remember where that boy sat and promptly never sat in that desk. Considering the tendencies for questionable stains and the fact that it can to bloody well life before, everyone’s agreed that’s a wise decision. Last year one of the freshmen even got bit by meat, or something, stuck under it. 

And combining that with the desk's occupant having a tendency to _constantly_ disappear, most people paid at least some attention to him/the desk. Even if it was only out of curiosity or paranoia. Didn’t help that in classes where the teachers had totally given up any pretence of controlling the boy he had a free pass to just leave without any warning or asking. Which sure, lead to less disruptions and Danny not looking like a stressed-out chihuahua. But it also led to the boy seemingly _literally_ disappearing. One minute he’s there, the next gone; everyone pretty sure no one actually saw him leave. Though someone did catch him crawling out the window once. 

Kwan especially had a tendency of keeping a general eye on Danny’s desk in English class, considering he always seemed to be seated directly across from the strange teen. Which yes, had given him the ability to use the excuse ‘Danny’s desk ate it’ in all seriousness and actually be believed. It had also given him the unforgettable experience of being right next to a randomly exploding desk once though. So he thinks things might be evened out. 

Regardless, he keeps an eye on that desk... and literally anything Danny laid next to it. Nothing today though, which was hopefully a positive sign. 

Or did he bring stuff? Kwan honestly can’t remember. Eh might as well check. He’d rather not have another ‘ecto-pistol in the bag and accidentally pointed at his head but thankfully just blasted apart the ceiling when it accidentally went off’ incident. Waiting till Mr. Lancer looks back to the board yet again to write more shit no one cares about except the nerds, to glance to the side and back forwards. 

Yup. No bag. Good. But then he pauses and squints at the whiteboard, because yeah no definitely no bag but was something not right? He thinks something was not right. Ah Zone, this better not be another ‘living desk’ moment. Risking another quick glance, which only makes him even more confused. Because the desk was fine. Danny was... not? He was still asleep that’s for sure, but Kwan’s pretty sure Danny has two legs and two feet, and neither were that thick. 

Needless to say Kwan immediately snaps his head back towards Danny, no longer giving half a damn if Mr. Lancer notices or not. Looks down and proceeds to blatantly stare, eyes wide and mouth popping open a little. What.... what the.... _what the fuck_??? No seriously, _what_??? Kwan’s eyes move a little, following the motion of the tail? As it does a little lazy swish across the ground and slightly in the air. A bit of it is even curled under Danny’s head like a pillow, man it’s long.

Kwan shakes his head a little and slowly inches his shoe over and gives it -him?- a little poke. Attempting to confirm if this is real. Glancing at the sleeping teens face as Danny shifts slightly and the tail? -seriously, what the ever-loving fuck???- moves slightly out of the way. 

Alright. Real it is. 

Kwan blinks, just to make extra sure he hasn’t gone insane or started hallucinating out of extreme poetry-induced boredom. Opening his mouth more and blurting out, “Fenton... what the fuck man”. 

Mr. Lancer sighs, speaking towards the whiteboard, “language, Mr. Ishiama”, turning to actually face one of the ‘prized’ -more like idolised- football stars, and seeing the teen paying absolutely zero attention; instead he’s staring dumbfounded at Daniel. Which... isn’t promising. Unsurprisingly, like whenever some kind of Daniel-related disturbance happened, the entire class turns to look to the teen at Kwan’s words. Mr. Lancer, of course, does the same, but he likes to think his reasons were more positive. 

Lancer drops the marker he was holding to the ground, turning around fully to face the class with raised eyebrows, “Lord Of The Flies!”. It doesn’t take anything more than that to get the rest of the class going. Some even getting up or falling out of their chairs. 

“Holy Shit Fenton”.

“Uh, should we wake him?”.

“Okay seriously, that can’t be normal? Right? RIGHT?”.

“His _does_ have that weird ecto-contamination though?”.

“Oh my... it’s actually kinda... cute?”.

“Ecto-contamination my _ass_ , he doesn’t _have legs_ ”. 

“Hahaha hahah ha he looks like a Naga”.

“Shut up _nerd_ ”. 

“I wonder if he even _knows_?”. 

“I mean, this _has_ to be a ghostly ecto thing?”.

“How the shit wouldn’t he?”.

“How do you think, moron. Maybe this just happens when he sleeps?”.

“I bet his freak parents are to blame. Probably some experiment gone wrong”. 

“HA. That would track”.

“Maybe a ghost pranked him and stole his legs?”. 

“That’s stupid”. 

“Wonder of he could, like, hold stuff with it”.

“I’ll show you stupid”. 

At that point Lancer has to step forward to stop the minor brawl that’s starting, “enough, Wuthering Heights, no fighting in class”, pushing Lily and Emily apart; who scowl at each other. Looking to Daniel, at this point basically everyone is standing up and around Daniel’s desk; unabashedly staring at or poking the occasionally swishing wiggling tail. Some was curled around his waist, some of it on the floor, some underneath his head, and the tip was just flicking in the air. There’s honestly no point in even _trying_ to get class back on track. Reaching out to grab and shake the teen's shoulder, hopefully he’s not passed out enough to ignore that. 

Half the class either gapes, jumps back, or laughs when, on the fourth slightly aggressive shake, Danny one arm judo flips or something Mr. Lancer over him and into the wall. The tail completely uncurling and waving lazily on the floor.

“HOLY SHIT!”.

“Damn Danny. Okay then”.

“Well, that just happened”. 

“Oh man. Hahahaha. That was _awesome_ ”. 

“Fenton? How the?”. 

Mr. Lancer rights himself with little effort, slightly used to this after years in ‘the most haunted city in the world’. That, and Daniel’s chucked him across a room once before to get him out of the way of some debris. Daniel however, jerks to be sitting upright, the tail? lashes violently into one of the desk legs sending the entire desk flipping onto its side; with Daniel included. 

Danny rubs the side of his head while yawning and pushing himself up with one arm, “what the Zone guys?”, and then looks around at all the teens just... staring at him. “Uhhhhh. I didn’t, like, blow something up again, did I?”.

Kwan blinks at him, “Fenton man, how can you _not know_ why we’re all looking at you like you just walked off the set for the fucking Exorcist”. 

Star seemingly takes a bit of pity on their strangest classmate, “Danny hon, your tail’s showing”, sounding weirdly unfazed by all this. But the entire class facepalms when the boy blushes and moves to cover his crotch of all things. 

Though Mr. Lancer can understand the boy’s reasoning, considering he lost his pants _so often_ as a freshman that Lancer literally bought Daniel a belt and kept a spare for him on hand at all times. 

But Danny moving to do that gets him to finally, _finally_ , notice shit is supremely not normal. He screws up his eyebrows, actually mutters, “well that don’t seem right, considering the circumstances”, and looks down. 

No one says _anything_ for a bit while Danny blinks down at the tail, everyone watching it swish around lazily. Danny looks back up to everyone, and only has this to say for himself, “uhhhhhh”. 

Kwan flops back down into his desk and laughs, “man, is that seriously all you’re gonna give us? You sprouted a ghost tail in the middle of class!”. 

“Yeah!”.

“You don’t even seem surprised. Figures”.

“So... your parents fucked you up.... _again_ ”.

“Language”.

“Oh come on! This has to be a prank”.

“You’ve got to say more than that”.

“You know what? Fuck this shit. I don’t even _want_ to know”.

“Pussy”.

“Fuck off”.

“Language, Todd”. 

“Can you even walk right now?”.

“How? No really. _How_?”.

“Of course can’t walk, he _doesn’t have legs_. You need those to walk, moron. It’s a basic requirement actually”.

Lancer sighs, pushing a few students away from Daniel before looking to the teen, “are you alright, Daniel? Do you... need to go to the nurse for... _this_ ”, and gestures at the tail; attempting not to seemed freaked out. 

Danny immediately shakes his head and waves his hands back and forth; easily sitting up on the tail like this is nothing new, “no! No! I’m fine! All good!”. 

Mr. Lancer just sighs as nearly the entire class shouts, “BULLSHIT!”, and do some variation of staring or pointing at the boy’s tail. Which, while being reasonable reactions, isn’t allowed on school grounds. 

Danny laughs awkwardly, glancing back at the tail and back up, “heh”, the tail coiling up under and behind him some. That just encourages more questions though.

“Oh! So you _can_ actually control it”.

“How’s it attached to your nerves and stuff though?”. 

“Oh Zone, another nerd alert?”.

“It’s reasonable! This is illogical!”.

“Objection!”.

“What?”.

“Nothing. I just really wanted to say that”.

“Why’d you even form it?”.

“Oh! Oh! If you can do this then can we?!?! Is this just an contamination thing?”.

“Okay point. What’s the use of this thing and especially while sleeping?”. 

“Oh mi god yas girl! I would look so cute with a ghost tail!”. 

“Oh I know girl!”.

“Right!”.

“Oh someone gag me”.

“Sure”.

“Someone _other_ than you”. 

“What’s it feel like?”.

Daniel mutters to the side, “whelp. I fucked up. Nice going Fenton”. But Mr. Lancer’s pretty sure he’s the only one that even heard that as the students pretty well start bickering with each other or asking Daniel questions without actually paying him any mind or just staring at the tail. Which is frankly, rude. But it does give Lancer a chance to ask, in a much quieter tone, “are you sure you’re alright?”. Daniel nods at him immediately and gives a small, confident though shaky, smile. Lancer nods right back before standing up, if he didn’t have to question Daniel’s oddness then it was honestly better not to question it at all. 

Mr. Lancer stands up and looks around at the other teens, “alright everyone, now I know there’s no point in picking back up where we left off, but everyone at the very least sit back down for the last few minutes”, sighing to himself when only the ‘good’ students do as asked, “if you give him some space he might, _might_ , actually answer something”; that gets everyone sitting down real quick.

Mr. Lancer walks back to his own desk and practically collapses into his chair, watching Daniel very awkwardly right his desk and pull himself up back into his seat. Lancer wants to know why he hasn’t changed back to, you know, _legs_. Or if he even can. He should probably call the Fenton’s honestly. But, Catcher In The Rye, he so doesn’t want to. _Really_ doesn’t want to. But if he can’t have legs, then he was going to _have to_. But if he asks then everyone will bombard the boy again. They were staring at him enough as it was and that... tail wasn’t exactly hiding his discomfort. Considering how it was all coiled up over itself in the boy’s seat. 

Danny looks around, leans back, and then slams his head into his desk, grumbling, “y’all aren’t gonna leave me alone unless I explain this, are you?”. 

“Are you kidding Fenton? _No_ ”. 

“Hahaha, obviously”. 

“Oh come on, why _wouldn’t_ you want to brag about this?“.

“Maybe because this is freaky and he’s a freak?”.

“Rechenbache, that’s enough”. 

Danny sighs into the desk top before sitting back up right and letting the tail uncoil. Grumbling, “ugh. Why couldn’t I just have stayed in bed?”, shaking his head and looking at the class, “okay this-”, sticking his hand out a bit, the class watching the tip of the tail move to lay in his open palm, “-is normal for me”, shrugging awkwardly, “kinda common thing while asleep”, grumbling almost aggressively, “which I’m now realising was a major mistake to get into the habit of”. 

Star blinks at him before giggling, “so you just sleep with a ghost tail? Why? Is kinda cute though”, a couple less stuck up girls nod and glance at each other; nodding more. That just makes Danny blush and mutter incoherently. 

Larry sticks his arms out to the side, “that still doesn’t answer the ‘how’?”. 

“Yeah!”. 

“Is that all you know how to say?”.

“Heck that doesn’t even answer the why!”.

“Uh, yeah? Yeah it does. Fenton was asleep”. 

“That’s not what I mean, dumbass”.

“Language”. 

“I second the ‘why’. Why sleep with that?”. 

“And honestly dude? You constantly sleep in class. How did you not think this was gonna happen if it’s so routine”. 

Danny scowls and rolls his eyes, “oh can it”, sighing, “and ‘cause it’s comfy alright? Geez. My sleeping routines are none of y’alls business”. 

Kwan sticks up a finger, “uh, actually you kinda _make it_ our business by sleeping in class”. 

“Fuck off”. 

“ _Daniel_ ”.

Danny rolls his eyes at Mr. Lancer before addressing the class again, “and it’s just ‘cause of my ecto. You know my shit’s weird, stop being surprised when it proves it’s weird”. 

Kwan sputters at that, “man, full-on ghost body parts and disappearing legs is beyond weird”. 

Danny shrugs, not even attempting to deny that fact, “portable pillow and blankets that _can’t_ be blown up. Plus, it helps me shed excess ecto. Y’all just shed your smaller amounts through your skin, lame”. 

“Huh, that actually makes sense”.

“Still weird you even do that man”.

“Wow. Being ecto-absorbent seems like a real pain”.

“So breathing, but for ecto”. That one earns a couple laughs, including from Danny. 

“Guess living in the ecto house that would make sense”. 

“Honestly man? I would say you should just wear those hideous anti-ecto jumpsuits”, practically everyone cringes, “but, y’ know, _hideous_ ”. 

“Capital ‘H’ Hideous”. 

“Zone! I’d rather a freaking tail over those suits too”. 

“Are we all still ignoring that this shouldn’t be possible and is _still_ illogical?”.

“Shut up, Larry. Nobody loves you”.

“Thing looks long enough you really could, like, pull it up and use it as a pillow”. 

“That’s literally what Fenton-dude was doing”. 

“Shut up, I wasn’t the one staring at him while he sleeps”. 

Brittney perks up, “do you sleep like a cat? You know, all curled up?”, tilting her head, “it was all curled under you just a bit ago”. That earns more blushing from Danny, making quite a few girls giggle and effectively confirming that yes, yes he did. Danny just mutters, “it’s comfy”, again. Which only results in even more giggles. 

Danny looks up at the sound of the bell, flops his tail to the ground, and the entire class just watch in awe as the tail solidifies and splits into regular ol’ jean-covered legs and red/white sneakers. Half the class muttering ‘woah’, while he just gets up and very obviously makes a beeline for the door. Lancer’s just glad he can walk. Danny pointing at the class without actually looking at anyone or slowing down, “maybe don’t go telling everyone about this yeah?”. 

Needless to say, everyone told everyone. Though Mr. Lancer told the other teachers that the strange new rumour surrounding Daniel was yet another practical joke. Which, with Daniel, was absolutely believable. And one thing no one does, is tell the Fenton’s. Which is all Danny had honestly hoped for.

**End**. 


End file.
